Stay on target

Back in the day video game file sizes were very modest. Sure at the time they took up a lot of space, given hardware restrictions. But now you can collect every NES game ever made in less than a gigabyte of storage. However, as games have grown grander, their worlds bigger, their graphics more detailed, their sounds more lush and clear, files sizes have rapidly ballooned. And limited disc storage, along with customer desire to own all their games digitally, means directly downloading those files onto your console. Do you want to enjoy Red Dead Redemption 2? You better be prepared to wait for nearly 100GB of data to pour in from the internet tubes.

Console manufacturers try to help players out by including a healthy amount of storage in the base hardware itself. If you’re paying a couple hundred dollars for these machines the least they can do is give you a terabyte of storage space. But if you’re an avid gamer you’re still quickly going to run out of room. So what are you supposed to do? Deleting games is not an option.

If you’re an Xbox One owner you’re in luck because current Xbox Ones support external hard drives for game storage, useful if you’re enjoying lots of titles from an Xbox Game Pass subscription. Sure you can manually swap out the internal drive for a faster solid-state drive or something. But just plugging in an additional drive easily expands your space while keeping read/write speed enough to not saddle gameplay with insufferable load times. And compatibility-wise, it’s all pretty generous. You just need a USB 3.0 port. So from across a variety of brands, here are the best external hard drives for Xbox One. For in-depth reviews of all these hard drives read the extensive reviews on our sister site PCMag.com.

Seagate Fast SSD

Fast is right in the name. And this Seagate drive’s speed is especially impressive considering you can get up to a terabyte of SSD space for an affordable price. Doubling your Xbox One’s space this well this easily for this price makes this one of the best external hard drives for Xbox One. Read more on PCMag.com.

Samsung Portable SSD T5

This Samsung drive has basically everything you want. Lots of space. All kinds of USB ports. Fast speed. And an attractive compact design that won’t be this ugly gaudy brick next to your sleek Xbox One S/X. The only catch is the higher price but that’s a price worth paying for one of the best external hard drives for Xbox One. Read more on PCMag.com.

CalDigit Tuff

Not that we expect players to take their Xbox One outside that often, but maybe if you have multiple systems you want to carry games with on an external drive to enjoy wherever you’re gaming. And if that drive broke somehow it would sure suck to download those games all again. Don’t worry about that with the waterproof, dust-proof, drop-proof CalDigit Tuff, the toughest best external hard drive for Xbox One. Read more on PCMag.com.

ADATA SE730H External SSD

This ADATA drive is maybe the chicest piece of tech on this whole list. Yeah you’ll only get 512GB of space. But in exchange you’ll get a really stylish drive that’ll frankly make your Xbox One look ugly. And the performance speed USB-C over no slouch either for this, one of the best external hard drives for Xbox One. Read more on PCMag.com.

Western Digital My Passport Wireless SSD

This Western Digital drive’s coolest feature, its ability to transmit data wirelessly, might not be exactly useful if you just want to plug it into your Xbox One via USB. But it does make it one of the best external hard drives for Xbox One that you can use in awesome other situations with other tech you might have. Read more on PCMag.com.